God is going to address in more detail the covenant that He made with Abram a while back. In Genesis 17, God changes Abram to Abraham. A man’s name had quite a bit more significance it seems, especially if he is willing to change it at age 99. That might be hard to get used to. Today we generally name our kids for what sounds cute. I think it would be neat if we waited a few weeks to see the kid’s personality and then name them according to that. But that is unlikely to become a popular idea, I guess unless God speaks directly to you. In this chapter he also changes Sarai to Sarah, which makes her the only women in the Bible whose name God changes.
I think I underestimate the value of having a multitude of nations come from me. Generally when we think blessing, we think about what benefits us right now and in monetary value. But if you consider the fact that you are infact going to die and none of your valued stuff will matter to you, then having your name remembered as the father of a multitude of nations sounds good. We still talk about Abraham and he died thousands of years ago. How long until people stop talking about you? A generation or two?
There are a lot of things that God ordered the Israelites to do that might seem weird, but a lot of them were so that they could flourish and avoid being decimated by disease or other natural things. I think the circumcision is definitely one of those since we do it today even for hygiene. Of course at 99 years old I can’t really imagine that experience. And it says every male in the household was circumcised that day. How did that announcement go over? I think I might resist a little if I was a servant. They must have all looked back and laughed at collectively the most miserable day in their lives.
I wonder at what point do you commune so often directly with God that you feel comfortable laughing at one of His statements? God has been promising these offspring for a few years now and I guess Abraham just assumed that it would be through Ishmael. But God once again shows us that He will choose to work through whomever He wants, regardless of convenience.